Canadian officials ask Iran, Syria about missing B.C. journalist

VANCOUVER – Canadian Foreign Affairs officials are asking Iranian and Syrian authorities for details about B.C. journalist Dorothy Parvaz, who went missing April 29 when she arrived in Syria to cover anti-government protests.

“We are very concerned about this individual and are pressing for information about her whereabouts,” Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione said Thursday in an email. “Canadian officials are engaging Iranian and Syrian authorities at high levels to obtain additional information.”

Parvaz’s father, Fred Parvaz, said although he has been in touch with Foreign Affairs, he has not been told anything specific about their actions.

“They’ve given me a standard response that they are doing whatever they can, and I just take them on their word,” said Parvaz, who is an instructor at both Capilano and Langara colleges.

He said that he had heard nothing new as of Thursday morning, but after more than 12 days without word from his daughter, he is very worried.

“My message is, please, anyone who can help us, help with some information,” he said. “Release her, let her go. But I’m not sure even who is holding her.”

Dorothy Parvaz, 39, was on assignment for the TV network Al Jazeera when she arrived in Syria. She hasn’t been heard from since.

Syrian officials first said they were holding Parvaz, but on Wednesday, the Syrian embassy in Washington, D.C., released a statement saying she had been deported to Iran after trying to enter the country on an expired Iranian passport with “tourism” as her declared reason for travel.

An Iranian official denied that she was being held in Iran.

“She has not come back to Tehran, otherwise we would ask her to give an interview or have a news conference to confirm she is back,” said the Iranian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.

“Possibly she has gone to a third country, perhaps Canada or the United States.”

Parvaz holds passports for Iran, Canada and the United States.

The dean of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communications at Washington State University said that the fact Parvaz put down “tourism” as her reason for entering Syria was not unusual.

Larry Pintak, a former Middle East correspondent for CBS with more than 30 years in journalism, said journalists often list tourism as a reason for entering a country, and they often carry a lot of currency, as did Parvaz when she was detained on her arrival in Syria on April 29.

Although she hadn’t declared the money she was carrying, the expired passport probably caused the most trouble, said Pintak, who writes and lectures on America’s relationship with the Muslim world.

“Journalists do that all the time,” he said. “You’re taking a calculated risk and cutting corners; you write down ‘tourist’ and slip in. It happens all the time with journalists.”

There are times, he said, when there is no other way for a journalist to get into a country that’s in turmoil, he said.

“As a foreign correspondent, you certainly push the envelope,” Pintak said. “You take chances that other non-journalists may not think is rational. But you also need to be careful, and the idea of her travelling and short-circuiting the system by going in as an Iranian is a calculated risk. Where she went wrong is her passport was expired.”

As for saying she was a tourist, Pintak said that usually a journalist will get a slap on the wrist, he said.

“There are relatively few countries where you’d end up detained,” he said. “Usually you’ll just get tossed out.”

Earlier this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for Parvaz’s immediate release.

“Syria’s apparent deportation of Dorothy Parvaz to Iran when she is also a citizen of the U.S. and Canada, is an irresponsible choice,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa program co-ordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem said in a statement. “Given Iran’s abysmal press freedom record, we are concerned about Parvaz’s well-being. Iranian authorities must immediately release Parvaz, who has committed no crime.”

Iran, together with China, was the world’s top jailer of journalists in 2010, said the CPJ, a non-profit organization that promotes press freedom.

The Iranian-born Parvaz moved to Canada when she was 12, and attended a North Vancouver high school before she went to the University of B.C.

She joined Al Jazeera in 2010, after working as a columnist and feature writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.